Solo untwinked 28 point melee?

[Warlawk]

******(I was originally going to put this at the end, but decided to move it up front for clarity) I am going to solo. Full stop. Period. No discussion on this point. It's simply a fact for me that most of my play time I cannot sit down without being afk every few minutes. If I cannot contribute 100% I cannot in good conscience join a group. You may say "but many groups won't care", well that's not the issue. The issue is that I care even if the group does not. I've been an MMO gamer for 10+ years and I am well aware many of the prevailing attitudes about solo players. I've heard it all, that's not what this thread is about, please don't bother to post if all you're going to do it offer commentary on soloing. Thanks.******

So I've just come back from a long break to tinker around for a bit. I have a 1/9 WF rogue/wizard that does pretty well solo, but I'm really feeling the itch to do some melee. The wizard is my highest level character, so I don't have any high end twink stuff to pass down. I have a handful of cash and some nice lowbie kit, but that's of minor impact.

I'm mostly looking for some input on something that would be functional solo melee that doesn't rely on having a huge pile of raid gear to put on and tomes for every stat. Ideally I would like something that can do pretty well at the higher levels so I can perhaps farm some of that kind of stuff and to a TR or something. Most of the builds I've seen posted for solo require huge amounts of gear that I simply won't have access to as a solo player.

Now, from looking around two things jumped out at me. A dwarven battlecleric (radiant servant) duel wielding dwarven war axes seems to be a popular choice. Also mentioned as a functional solo build was a TWF paladin splashing 2 monk for feats and evasion, drow recommended for people without 32 point builds unlocked (that's me).

Anyone have any practical experience on these, or suggestions for something different that might do the trick? Things like the exploiter and monk/cleric builds are great but seem to be EXTREMELY gear intensive which is simply not something that's going to work for me.

[Crimsonplayer]

Ultimega 18pally 2 rogue is a good build

[Shyver]

I'd say go with dwarf, 12 cleric/6 fighter/2 monk or a 12 cleric/6 paladin/2 monk. I have a Horc 12 cleric/6 paladin/2 monk that I solo'd pretty much all the way to cap without any major tome/raid loot items and it was a lot of fun.

[jmonty]

my first choice would be a pure monk with a clr hireling. half elf with clr dilettante feat if you want self healing. since you don't have tomes you might want a dex/wis build, but if you are willing to get a +2 tome of supreme ability i'd say go str/wis.

[t0r012]

IMO couple options

1 thf pure human pally.
2 twf drow pally pure or 2 rogue splash
3 twf dual dwarf axe 18/2 ranger rogue
4 dex/wis finess light path monk.

[Kriogen]

Dwarven Ranger.

[Warlawk]

I appreciate the feedback, at least the things I was looking at are on the list.

I gotta say I was not really keen on ranger based builds because it seems that they are pretty much reliant on one of two things. High end gear to avoid hits, or consumables to heal the hits.

I would prefer to avoid having to blow a lot of cash on consumables since I don't really have a sugar daddy character yet. That kind of leaves me leaning toward a cleric with Extend for self buffing efficiency and empower healing to keep myself topped off without completely destroying my SP pool. Just doesn't look like paladin has the kind of healing necessary to keep going without leaning *heavily* on consumables. Is this just an outright unreasonable expectation?

[jmonty]

Dwarven Ranger.

a melee build like that could work great with at least one rogue level. 12 ranger/7 rogue/1 fighter [or monk] or 12 ranger/7 fighter [or 7 monk even] /1 rogue

just take rogue first for the UMD! and, focus on str and con. no need for much dex as you get the twf feats from the ranger levels.

[BlackSteel]

pure monk. alot of the races have different perks. just make sure you get a decent DC for stunning fist/blow and touch of death. with those 3 you're running with essentially 3 death moves while leveling, 4 if you count quivering palm as well (never put it on my hot bar myself) decent wisdom score and/or tactics is what you'd want to focus on.

you could also do the AC route, but I never really found it necessary, especially when you have the 3 (4) instant gib attacks.

[Hecore]

Throwing in my opinion for an Elf Paladin 18/Monk 2. Grab Least/Lesser Dragonmark and Extend - you lose on power attack, but that's not the worst thing in the world to be missing when solo. At 28 points and a +1 tome you can get all ranks of TWF, and an eventual +2 tome lets you cap DM. The 50% miss chance will make a huge difference solo, and the extend will also help Zeal and Divine Favor.

[Therigar]

Soloing is different from grouping and the tactics used should probably be different much of the time. A lot of the advice you have been given does not take into account this shift in tactics. That is to be expected because many people cannot change the way they play to fit different situations.

If you solo you will find some quests that are simply beyond your ability to complete. This could be caused by a number of things but it will probably prove to be true. It is reasonable to conclude that you should not build for those quests. Instead you should build for the quests that you can be expected to complete.

So, this brings me to my first point. AC will matter for you. If you can conceive of a way to reach decent AC then you should probably give serious thought to incorporating that into your build. This argues strongly for bypassing TWF and THF and using a shield. With 28 point builds you generally cannot get enough synergy between DEX and WIS for the unarmored monk splash builds. That means you should rely on armor and use a shield.

Second point, inherent self healing will be of great value to you. You can rely on hirelings but they have a way of dying at inopportune moments. Being able to cover your own heals will pay large dividends in the long run.

The third point I would make is that evasion will be your friend. The ability to escape serious AOE damage from spells and traps will grow more important as the quests become harder. If you can fit it in then it will be useful to you.

Lastly, ranged damage or instant killing effects will save you a lot of grief.

So, what types of characters have most or all of these qualities?

Warforged wizards and sorcerers that splash monk or rogue fit most of the bill.

Rangers using mithral breastplate armor fit most of it as well.

Clerics and favored souls that splash monk or rogue would also work.

My personal recommendation would be an Arcane Archer dwarven ranger 18/fighter 2 or a warforged favored soul 20. The warforged would not use a shield but would instead rely on adamantine body feat and greatswords in connection with the Lord of Blades and capstone enhancements. Note that you'd not have evasion with this choice.

The arcane archer would be dwarf for use of dwarven axes which will proc glancing blows when used one-handed with shield. The reason to splash fighter is for the two free feats and also the availability of tower shields for higher AC.

Both give self healing via spells and access to wands. Both give access to instant kill and ranged options. Ranger gives more AC but favored soul will ultimately give DR which can be a great compensation. Both give meaningful buffs.

And, what is most important is that both can still operate acceptably in groups if you find yourself with the time to join. The favored soul can shift modes to operate as a competent healer if needed and remains a useful melee. The ranger can switch to TWF using the innate ranger abilities for a DPS boost in support of the brute force tactics used by most groups.

Either is a win-win option IMO.

[PNellesen]

Dwarven Ranger.

I've been leveling up a Dwarf 18/2 Ranger/Fighter based on a build ubongwah posted a while back, and absolutely love him. I usually bring a cleric hireling along just to make things go a little faster, but he could easily solo most at-level content with wands/pots. Tough as nails, and hits like a freight train (I think I dropped CON and STR to make it a 28pt build)

[yawumpus]

First, it sounds like you want to be solo just to avoid grouping with other people. In that case, bring a [cleric] hireling*. Some "just me vs. Xendric" types don't even want a hireling.

Second: this really isn't a solo game, although it can be played solo for quite awhile. I expect you can only expect to get to about 14th level or so. Don't bother worrying about capstones or the AA ranger's "arrow of slaying" ability. If you get hooked on DDO, expect to come in from the cold at some time. On the other hand, you have a lot of play time before you have to make that decision (group, start over, or face challenges far greater than anything a grouped player can expect). - Note that I stopped thinking of myself as a "solo player" long before the casual level of difficulty popped up. You might be able to still advance while only taking more than about four times as long to level.

My recommendation: melee ranger (starting with a level of rogue). There are plenty of ways to improve this (mostly by modifying the levels from 15-20), but you should be able to make an informed choice by then. Start by running the "storehouse's secret" quest twice. First time, take the belt with false life and wear it. Second time, sell whichever belt to the outside vendor and buy a cleric hireling. Go forth and conquer.

* if you do come in out of the cold, don't expect the "autohjealz" from a human cleric to be the same as a hireling.

[unbongwah]

Here are just some possibilities which occur to me:

• Pure WF FvS like Soul Survivor. [Note: the gear listed may look intimidating, but that's for endgame raiding; as a soloing build for leveling, your gear reqs are much more modest.]
• Paladin, either pure or with a rogue or monk splash. Offhand I'd guess THF human or TWF drow would be your best options.
• Bards make great soloers IMHO: melee DPS, buffs, heals, CC songs, maybe even trap skills with a rogue splash.
• Battle cleric like the ones in my sig.
• Tempest trapmonkey like the one in my sig; or my dwarf Tempest which PNellesen posted earlier (glad you're enjoying it ); maybe one of the builds I just posted here.

[EvilGhandi]

You can get meaningful self healing with an 18/1/1 Exploiter depending on how you choose to build with your enhancements.

Regardless of melee build I bet you can solo most content that doesn't require multiple players to activate switches/puzzles. All you need is a healing hireling, and a pocket full of air elemental summoning gems from the crystal cove event. Sit back, let elly aggro, knock mobs off their feet, beat them while they're down, rinse and repeat. Air elly's are incredibly powerful and useful.

[somenewnoob]

I play exclusively solo pretty much and for low levels at least have found that a pure fighter with a cleric hireling does the trick for me. Not sure how viable this is mid/high level, but it's been good so far.

If I had it to do over again I might have went pure barbarian and more of a DPS build than my gimpy (but still fun) sword and board fighter.

[Sydril]

A melee specced battle caster is one of the more effective soloers actually, especially in higher end content.

A warforged sorcerer or archmage with a decent strength or a pale master of any race works fine for this.

You could do a lesser on your current wizard, get some different gear and accomplish this quite effectively.